Overview

Current Professional/Research Interests:I am interested in playwriting, acting, directing, theatre for social change, theatre pedagogy, embodied learning and service learning.

Recent Publications/Conferences:I have written a play titled Have You Filled a Bucket Today? (www.bucketfillingplay.com) based on the award-winning children's books by Carol McCloud. It's a bullying-prevention story for young audiences. I have presented on bullying-prevention programming and the arts at the American Association of University Women's New York State Convention, Theatre Symposium, NCPR, the international television program The Big Picture With Thom Hartmann, and SLU's own Laurentian Lecture Series.

I am currently at work on my second play, for middle schoolers. In addition to playwriting, I act and direct at professional theatres and national conferences, and in independent films. One of the highlights of my career was when I was one of only 120 directors across the U.S. and abroad selected by The Tectonic Theatre Project to direct their epilogue The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later as part of an international theatre event in 2009. I was again selected to premiere their new play Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays in 2011. I have directed at both The Firehouse Theatre Project in Richmond, Virginia and Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, New York. My recent acting credits include: Adore, Five Census, West Field Films; Ingrid, Dissection of an Olive, independent film; Nurse, the suitors’ ward (a one-woman 10 minute play), Pendragon Theatre; Cheryl, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, Pendragon Theatre and regional tour; and Prudence, Deception Pass, David Mark Cohen Award Reading, ATHE Conference. At SLU I have directed departmental stage productions such as Dead Man's Cell Phone, Black Comedy, The Laramie Project, Spinning Into Butter, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Vagina Monologues.

In additional to my creative scholarship, I also engage in more traditional scholarship. In 2009 I published an article in the service learning journal Compact Impact titled “Service Learning and the Arts: Community, Design and Impact.” In 2013 I reviewed Anne Fliotsos' and Wendy Vierow's text International Women Stage Directors. In addition, I recently submitted a piece called “Theatre, Youth and Bullying: Theatre as a Tool for Social Change” to the journal Theatre Symposium, after presenting the paper at the conference of the same name.

I have also given presentations at both national and regional conferences, including: “The Body as a Site of Knowledge: A Transdisciplinary Pedagogy" (ATHE); “Get Them Moving: The Benefits of Bodily-Kinesthetic Pedagogies” (The Teaching Professor Conference); “Theatre for Social Change: Course Design and Pedagogies,” (SETC);" and “Acting Through the Ages: Stylized Acting for the Greek, Elizabethan and Restoration Periods” (SETC).

I am the recipient of the Catherine and William Lynn Teaching Medal and the Virginia Commonwealth University Excellence in Theatre Award.

List of Professional Associations/MembershipsAssociation for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC)